Most inexperienced Players underestimated slimes. In most media such as novels, movies, and comics, they were often depicted as cute little monsters. But veteran Players knew better than to do that. No matter how strong they were, they knew to be careful of getting surrounded.
“I’ve never been surrounded by slimes before… This feels weird,” Seo Jun-Ho muttered, looking over the twelve slimes encircling him. Even though it was for the sake of testing the Frost Queen’s abilities, he felt that it was a little excessive.
“Contractor, do not underestimate me,” she said carelessly. She pointed her finger. The temperature dropped, freezing the slimes.
Clap!
As she brought her hands together, they froze into ice and shattered.
“Wow…”
Since slimes were mostly made up of liquid, the Frost Skill was their natural enemy.
“This is my power. What do you think?” she asked, jutting her chin. She had killed them with the flick of a wrist.
Instead of praising her, Seo Jun-Ho only complained. “What do I think? This is a mess…” He let out a soft sigh as he dug through the ice shards that had been slimes mere moments ago. “The Quest said to bring back 100 swamp slime cores, but you shattered them all.”
“Oh right, the cores…” The Frost Queen realized her mistake. “Fine, let us proceed to the next area. I shall demonstrate my skills properly.”
“Don’t make the cores explode this time.”
Seo Jun-Ho walked around the swamp, gathering slimes. When he had gathered around twenty, the Frost Queen flicked her finger once again.
Crackle!
She tried a different mode of attack this time. Ice spikes formed in the air and pierced through the slimes. When ice spikes emerged from their bodies, they all had a core at the tip.
“So you extracted the cores instead? Not bad.” In the same way that humans needed their hearts, slimes would die if their cores were destroyed. The swamp slimes tried to crawl forward, but they melted into the ground. Seo Jun-Ho nodded as he watched. “You’re much faster at making the spikes than I am, and you have great accuracy. But…”
They were too slow. Most Players in Frontier would easily be able to dodge them.
He knew why this was the case. “Because you’re a Lesser Spirit…” Seo Jun-Ho started.
“An Arch Spirit,” she corrected.
“…Right. But even if you’re an Arch Spirit, you’re still a Spirit and have gotten a lot slower than your original form.”
“I-It can’t be helped,” she muttered.
“Tsk.?You got nerfed as soon as you stopped being my enemy and became an ally.”
When they fought at the Nest, the Frost Queen used her own magic power to use her abilities. Her ice spears were so fast that it was hard to process and dodge them in time. But now, her power was derived from Seo Jun-Ho’s mental energy. Since the very source of her power had changed, her power output had naturally decreased.
“Objectively speaking, I don’t think hurling projectiles is a good fighting style for you right now,” Seo Jun-Ho said.
“…I know,” the Frost Queen responded despondently. “All I can do right now is support you in battle.” All that she could do for him was lower the temperature, freeze the ground, restrain the enemy, or make shields.
“Why do you look so down? What you can do is still a tremendous help for me.” He didn’t just say that to make her feel better, he was sincere. A Spirit was a reliable ally on the battlefield that he could always trust to assist him. “So, now that we’ve decided that you’ll be a support… How about the ice golems?” he asked.
The golems she summoned in the Cave of Trials had merely been illusions, but they had been able to block Rahmadat Khali. “I couldn’t get a good look last time because I was fighting.”
“They are quite decent,” the Frost Queen said coyly. She quietly clapped her hands together. The moisture in the air froze in an instant, creating four ice golems.
“Wow…” Seo Jun-Ho slowly walked around the creations. They were much bigger than him; about 250 centimeters tall and at least three times as wide. “I didn’t know that they were so big. They’re pretty intimidating.”
He also liked that they were made of ice. “They’re perfect tankers,” he said. He smiled as he looked up at them. “They were moving pretty swiftly last time. Do they have a conscience?”
“They do, but their intelligence is very low.” She moved her index finger from side to side, and the golems’ heads turned to follow her finger. “So if we use them in battle, it would be more convenient and efficient if I control them myself.
“Ah,?so they aren’t autonomous…” Seo Jun-Ho considered this for a second. “What if we trained them?
“I’m not sure… If we did it repetitively, perhaps they will learn. I have never tried, so I do not know the answer.”
“We can take our time with that.” Seo Jun-Ho’s eyes sparkled like a child eyeing a new toy.
There was only one reason why he hadn’t been hunting high-level monsters.
‘No matter how high my stats are, things could get dangerous if there are a lot of them.’
He didn’t have any teammates to watch his back. Even if he tried to find some, it would be troublesome to hide his skills and whatnot. However, things would be different with the golems.
“…If we train them up, I think we’ll even be able to drive hunt.”Seo Jun-Ho looked up at the ice golems and licked his lips. He turned to the Frost Queen. “Frost, if you’re controlling the golems, would you still be able to give me extra support?”
“Who do you think I am?” She puffed out her chest. “I am the Frost Queen of Niflheim. I am the one who freezes the world. Though I have been reduced to a mere Less—I mean, a mere Arch Spirit, that much is nothing,” she said proudly.
“…Really? Then prove it.”
Seo Jun-Ho started to look around for more swamp slimes.
*** ．ｔ
The things he wanted to know from today’s training session were simple.
‘How much and how long the Frost Queen can fight on her own.’
Seo Jun-Ho was greatly satisfied with the results.
“Hmm.?If you’re controlling four golems… You should still be able to handle two or three level-80 Players on your own,” Seo Jun-Ho observed.
“I can handle even more of them,” she said.
“Realistically, you can’t…”
“No, I can.” Her arrogance refused to let her admit it, but it was true.
“And you can keep them on the field for about three hours…” It could be a long or short time, depending on how you looked at it. Seo Jun-Ho massaged his throbbing temples. “We should be able to drive hunt.”
Of course, this didn’t mean that they could do it right away.
‘Just like she said, the ice golems are too unintelligent…’
Simply put, they weren’t adaptable at all.
“It makes me wonder if training them is even possible at all.”
It would be a shame if it was impossible. If the golems had even a child’s intelligence, the number of different battle techniques they could try would be infinite.
“Contractor, that makes a hundred…”
While he was lost in thought, the Frost Queen had managed to collect a hundred slime cores through ‘automatic hunting.’ Seo Jun-Ho collected the cores and stood up from the rock he was sitting on.
“We’ll have a lot to prepare for once we return to the city,” he said
“Preparations for what? Were you not planning to return to the field tomorrow and focus on raising your level?” she asked.
“That’s what I had planned… But I changed my mind because your skills were beyond my imagination.”
Originally, he had planned to focus on the Kobold Hunting Competition. Seo Jun-Ho’s goal had been to rank high enough to have a chance to speak with the city lord?of Gilleon. He had planned to slowly build their relationship to eventually get a Quest from him.
‘But things are different now…’
The Frost Queen was unbelievably powerful. Frankly, he had originally doubted that she would be of much help because she was a Lesser Spirit, but he had been gravely mistaken.
“I don’t think I’ll have any trouble winning the competition…” If that happened, he would easily be able to meet with the city lord.
‘Actually, I think I’ll be able to skip over the talking stage and get a Quest from him right away.”
Seo Jun-Ho’s eyes sparkled as he prepared to head back. “There’s not much time left until the competition.”
Before the competition began, he would have to train the ice golems, learn to fight with the Forst Queen, and reach level 50.
Time was of the essence.
***
They returned to the Adventurer Guild to fulfill the Quest and receive the rewards—a small amount of money, and 60 Fame. Seo Jun-Ho put the money away and returned to the inn, where he gave the Frost Queen her usual snack.
“Contractor! It tastes even better after breaking a sweat.”
‘Actually, I don’t think that’s the reason why it tastes even better…’
He had put twice the amount of Spirit Crystal shavings because she worked hard today. He watched her nibble happily on her snacks before standing up.
“Finish your snack. I’m going to meet someone at the auction house.”
“Auction house? Do you plan to buy something?”
“There’s something I’m looking for.”
“Mm,?alright. Be careful of the carriages.”
In other words, she was refusing to accompany him. Seo Jun-Ho opened a map of Gilleon and started walking toward the auction house. It was his first time going there, but he had learned about how it worked while studying up on the 2nd floor.
“The catalog, please,” he said to the manager. They gave it to him without a word.
Seo Jun-Ho took a seat on the sofa and quickly started to flip through the thick book. There were two items that he was looking for.
‘First, Spirit Crystals.’
After seeing the Frost Queen’s power, his desire for Spirit Crystals grew. The more she ate them, the greater chance she had of raising her spirit rank.
‘She’s already pretty useful as it is, but if she reaches Low, Common, High…Or even Arch?’
He wouldn’t be afraid of taking on the likes of Nazad Hallow or even the Nine Heavens.
“…I found it,” he muttered. There were three Spirit Crystals in the catalog, but Seo Jun-Ho’s face fell when he saw their prices. “What? Why is it so high?”
One small rock was 100 gold or 1 billion won. In total, the three rocks were 3 billion won. He could buy an apartment or two in Seoul with that money.
“Ha… I didn’t think that I would have to worry about money because I brought a lot with me…” It turned out that he had basically been feeding the Frost Queen money the whole time.
Still, it wasn’t just a meaningless investment. He would get several times the return.
.
“Ugh.?Excuse me,” he said to the manager.
Seo Jun-Ho finished bidding on the three Spirit Crystals and left the auction house, not bothering to look at any other items. He opened the ‘Guide to Gilleon’ guidebook that Ply had made for him and looked through the directory.
“Here it is.” He tapped his finger on a name.
[Shasha Alkheni]
She was one of the people indebted to Ply. An alchemist.
1. It’s forcing a bunch of enemies into a corner, then dealing with them all at once.